Three-dimensional (3D) movies have been consistently released in growing numbers. As popularity of 3D content expands in theaters, there are increasing efforts aimed at expanding a similar 3D experience to the home environment, particularly, through the advent of 3D television.
Recently, television programming has become more widely available in 3D. Sporting events and concerts have been broadcast for home consumption. 3D component sales hold the key to further increases for 3D presentations targeting the home theater environment. As 3D component sales ramp up and as the demand for 3D grows, it is expected that 3D programming will be offered widely on most of the popular TV channels and in recorded media in the near future.
But there are some challenges to growing the 3D television market. 3D television in home theater environment offers considerably smaller screen sizes and considerably smaller viewing distances than the screen sizes and viewing distances found in movie theaters. This translates into greater restrictions on the 3D content delivered to a 3D television. For example, the 3D television in a home theater will restrict the depth range to be smaller than that allowed in most movie theaters.
In movie theaters, 3D effects can be created on a grand scale so that elements in a scene appear to pop all the way out of the screen into each audience member's seat, while other elements in the same scene appear to be far off in the distance well behind the screen. Most people can enjoy watching 3D scenes that appear behind the screen for a relaxed viewing experience. For some audience members, these lifelike and greater-than-lifelike effects can be quite enjoyable; for other audience members, these same effects can be uncomfortable at best. In other words, different people have different comfort ranges of depth when viewing 3D content.
At the present time, there is no known technique for adapting or for optimizing a 3D presentation to a user's preferences, especially with respect to depth. Hence, an automated method to adjust and customize the depth of 3D content for viewing preferences can be expected to improve the viewing experience of the 3D content.